U-46 leaders attend White House summit on school discipline

Elgin Area School District U-46 leaders shared the district's successes with school discipline policies and practices Wednesday at a White House summit.

The daylong Rethink Discipline conference, sponsored by the U.S. Departments of Education and Justice, focused on creating positive school climates and implementing effective discipline practices.

More than 3 million students are suspended or expelled each year (including 4-year-olds), per the education department's Civil Rights Data Collection analysis. And students within subgroups, such as racial and ethnic minorities and students with disabilities, are hardest hit, the data shows.

At the summit, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, top department officials, and participants discussed new tools and resources to be released by the Supportive School Discipline Initiative, launched in 2011 to address the "school-to-prison pipeline" - overly harsh discipline and inappropriate referrals from schools to the criminal justice system.

U-46 was among roughly 40 school districts there and the only one from Illinois to be invited to participate. The state's second-largest school district has seen significant reductions in the number of out-of-school suspensions and expulsions, officials said.

The district's overall out-of-school suspension rate declined by roughly 74 percent from 2007 to 2014.

"The efforts of our school leaders and teachers is evident in our results," U-46 CEO Tony Sanders said. "We are proud to represent Illinois at this convening to discuss best practices around student discipline."

In the 2007-08 school year, the district had 7,082 out-of-school suspensions total for secondary schools. That number dipped to 1,827 in the 2014-15 school year, district data shows.

"We have almost reached our goal of reducing our suspension rate by 75 percent for the 2015 goals set almost three or four years ago," said Randal Ellison, U-46 coordinator of prekindergarten to 12th-grade discipline and education options, who also is at the summit. "We also have reduced our 10-day out-of-school suspension rate from 98 in 2013 to 54 for 2014."

Suspension rates for black and Hispanic students also declined from 2013 to 2014. For black students, it dipped from 29.9 to 22.2, and for Latinos it went down from 58.2 to 51.9, he added.

Expulsion hearings and overall expulsions within the district also declined from 38 hearings and 16 expulsions in 2013 to 16 hearings and one expulsion in 2014.

"We were also able to reduce our occurrence of fights in schools from last year - 452 in 2013 to 385 in 2014," Ellison said.

Ellison credited an increase in staff training and programs, such as Crisis Prevention and Intervention Training, for the reduction in suspensions and expulsions.

"We were able to increase the number of staff members who have participated in the (CPI) program from 38 percent in 2013 to 45 percent in 2014," he added.

The district's Positive Behavior Interventions & Supports program also has improved with more schools achieving tier one (47, up from 43) and tier two (40, up from 38) status in 2014.

"These factors combined helps contribute to the decrease in suspensions and expulsions and we are proud to say we are moving in the right direction," Ellison said.